Widespread 911 outages affecting Mississippi and Louisiana, officials say

By Emma Tucker, CNN

(CNN) — Louisiana and Mississippi are experiencing widespread outages of 911 emergency calling systems after reporting fiber cable damage, according to officials.

The outages are impacting multiple parishes in Louisiana and include the state’s three largest cities, as well as several Mississippi counties and the capital city of Jackson, according to officials.

A severed fiber cable was cited by officials in both states as the reason for the slew of outages.

New Orleans emergency communications officials said the outages are having a “regional impact” as a result of the fiber line break. Mississippi officials are working with AT&T to determine the scope of the outages after fiber optic lines were damaged, said Scott Simmons, director of external affairs at the state’s department of emergency management.

“There was a major fiber cut located in Mississippi that has taken out all of this,” Karl Fasold, Orleans Parish communications director said during a news conference streamed on WWL-TV. He said there’s no indication or reason to suspect the fiber cuts were malicious.

AT&T told CNN they are “aware of service issues for some customers” in areas of both states, adding more information will be released as it becomes available.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency received reports from AT&T saying they are responding to a “series of fiber cuts” that are impacting their network.

“The state of Mississippi is in close contact with AT&T. AT&T crews are working to assess the damage and restore service as quickly as possible,” Reeves said on X.

Local officials have been advising residents to call alternate numbers while they work to restore 911 service.

Outages were also reported in Fulton County, Illinois, where officials are advising residents to call a non-emergency number, the Canton Police Department said. City officials in Canton said the outage has lasted at least an hour, as they caution residents “there may be some waiting” as it’s still unclear when the service will be back up, a spokesperson said.

Forrest and Kemper are among the counties affected in Mississippi, while in Louisiana, Jefferson and Tangipahoa parishes as well as the cities of Baton Rouge and Shreveport are among those experiencing outages.

The city of McComb in Mississippi said services have been fully restored, just before 4:30 p.m. local time, in Pike County and the impacted surrounding areas.

The 911 line in Shreveport will be back up and running again in the next few minutes as of 3:30 p.m. local time, city police told CNN. The agency spokesperson said they’re seeing an increase in call volume to their non-emergency dispatch lines since the outage was first reported.

“This outage has impacted 911 service across half of Mississippi and throughout Louisiana,” said the city of Shreveport.

Tangipahoa authorities told residents who need to call 911 that if they receive a busy signal their call will still be logged and they will get a return call “within seconds” from a regular number.

In St. Tammany Parish, both their main non-emergency dispatch line and 911 service are down, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office said. The agency is working with its IT department to add a new number for residents to call, the spokesperson added.

Verizon said in a statement to CNN the outages are “due to a network issue by another carrier,” and landline customers are not impacted.

CNN has reached out to T-Mobile and smaller providers such as Consumer Cellular and Google Fi for comment on the incidents.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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